42 PRINCIPLES OF DOG TRAINING. 
is a greater diversity of opinion. With this fact 
those who have watched the kennel press for the 
past ten years are familiar. In articles on gun- 
shyness which have appeared in the ‘‘ American 
Field” it is noted that while one claims that the 
defect is a fatal one, another is equally sure 
that it is curable. One writer considers two dis- 
tinct forms of gun-shyness, namely: natural, or 
hereditary ; and unnatural, or induced by circum- 
stances, —the former he deems incurable. This 
theory is certainly ingenious, but reason can 
scarcely sustain such a nicety of distinction, if 
we consider this fault of disposition only; that 
is, if a dog is simply terrorized by the sound of 
the gun, and yet shows no lack of courage under 
other conditions. Here, again, we find ourselves 
dealing with the improbable; for by far the larg- 
est proportion of gun-shy dogs are, under all 
circumstances in which courage is needed, nota- 
bly deficient in that attribute. If a young dog, 
nearing maturity, is of a skulking, cowardly 
nature, it will be next to impossible to instil 
into him the quality in which he is so essentially 
lacking, and, very properly, such an unfor- 
tunate should be condemned as incurable. If, 
